Polin-dag 4.11.2025 Religion, Ecology and Diversity

Höstens Polin-dag ordnas tisdagen den 4 november 2025 kl. 10.00-16.15 med temat religion, ekologi och diversitet. Dagen ordnas i samarbete med forskningsnätverket RED. Möjlighet att delta via Zoom, https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/63372804680 (Meeting ID: 633 7280 4680).

Kl. 17.30 är det middag på restaurant Kuori. OBS! Kräver anmälning!

Program

10:00              Laura Wickström: Introduction to the topic of the day

10:15               Panu Pihkala (Helsingfors universitet): Exploring the impacts of environmental issues for Finnish Christianity

11:00               Ksenia Medvedeva (Helsingfors universitet): “Coming through the back door”: Environmental initiatives in Eastern Orthodox communities

12:00               Lunch i Grädda

13:00               Teuvo Laitila (University of Eastern Finland): Animal Release in Mahayana Buddhism

13:40               Johannes Cairns (Åbo universitet, Helsingfors universitet): How Finnish Extinction Rebellion activists practicing Buddhism negotiate polarization

14:20               Eftermiddagste eller kaffe

14:40               Ville Niemelä (Helsingfors universitet): “Hwad är det för ett land, der wargarne äta upp barn?”: The Construction of the Finnish Wolf Trauma in 19th-Century Newspapers  

15:20               Laura Wickström (Polin-institutet, Åbo Akademi): Research and Activism: Four Contemporary Key Figures of Eco-Islam

16:00               Avslutning

17.30               Middag på Restaurant Kuori

Polin-institutet bjuder både på lunch och middag. Polin-middagen äger rum på Restaurant Kuori, Tavastgatan 8, kl. 17:30. Middagen består av en avsmakningsmeny i vilken eventuella allergier och matrestriktioner beaktas. Middagen är öppen för alla men kräver en förhandsanmälan senast 20.10 genom att e-posta tove.hoglund@abo.fi. Meddela i samband med anmälningen om eventuella matrestriktioner. Meddela även om du önskar delta i lunchen på Grädda med tanke på allergier och bordsreservation.

Panu Pihkala, a docent in environmental theology at the University of Helsinki, has extensive experience in researching the relationship between religion and the environment. He is also recognised as Finland’s foremost expert in multidisciplinary research related to environmental anxiety. His non-fiction book, Päin helvettiä? Ympäristöahdistus ja toivo (Headed to Hell? Environmental Anxiety and Hope) (2017), sparked widespread public debate. In 2018, The Lifelong Learning Foundation awarded him the Sivistyspalkinto for his contributions to the field.

Ksenia Medvedeva is a sociologist specializing in various aspects of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. She defended her PhD magna cum laude at Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), with doctoral research on contemporary Eastern Orthodox monasticism in North America. Her current work explores religion and the environment, particularly ecological initiatives within Orthodox Churches. As an academic nomad, she has studied or worked in Belarus, Russia, Canada, Austria, Germany, Poland, the United States, and Greece.

Teuvo Laitila is a PhD, docent of religious studies at the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Turku, as well as a freelance researcher. His research interests include animal relations in religion and animal theology, religion and politics in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, anti-Semitism and Japan.

Johannes Cairns (PhD, docent) is a researcher at the Universities of Turku and Helsinki, working on antimicrobial resistance, community resilience and the intersections of belief and environmental action. He is also a founding member of One Health Finland.

Ville Niemelä (MTh) is a doctoral researcher in religious studies at the University of Helsinki. His interests lie particularly in natural mythology and deep ecology. In his doctoral dissertation, Niemelä examines the Finnish relationship with wolves as a worldview question built on the post-Durkheimian concept of the sacred.

Laura Wickström (MA, MSSc), PhD researcher in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University) specialises in researching the relationship between Islam and ecology. She has collected empirical data, particularly in Turkey and Lebanon, where she has also worked as a researcher-coordinator at the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (FIME). She is currently a board member representing ÅAU of the Finnish Institute in the Middle East and the chair of the Friends of the Finnish Institute in the Middle East (SLIY). She is currently working as the coordinator at the Polin Institute.